26 April – No Concert
19 April – Debbie Arthurs’ Jazz Quintet: With music essentially from 1920s and 1930s we saw, for the first time, this quintet. Leader, Debbie Arthurs, was on saxophone and vocals, Dave Deakin on trombone (and a couple of vocals), Keith Little on piano, Rachel Haywood on guitar and Malcolm Sked on double bass gave us a concert to remember. They opened with ‘St Louis Blues’ and continued the first half with ‘Goody Goody’, ‘When The World Is At Rest’, ‘Lady Be Good’, ‘The Very Thought Of You’, ‘It Had To Be You’, ‘My Blackbirds are Bluebirds Now’ and ‘’You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To’. After the interval we had ‘Ain’t Cha’, ‘Travelling All Alone’, ‘Running Wild’, ‘Don’t Blame Me’, ‘I Got Rhythm’, ‘Don’t Get Around Much Any More’ and finished with ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing’. A couple of songs in there I had not heard before – always welcome to listen to something new. Debbie Arthurs has a fine voice and the music was great. We hope to hear them again in the next season.
12 April – Jane Williams’ Jazz Quintet featuring Andy Leggett: Jane Williams (leader) was on Ukulele and Vocals – but we know she also is pretty good on the piano and indeed performed n this in a recent Channel 4 TV series of ‘The Piano’, Mike Frost on Guitar, Bill Lynnn Double Bass, Greg Evans on drums and lovely to see again Andy Leggett on reads. They opened with ‘All Of Me’, ‘I Thought About You’, ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing’, ‘You Don’t Know Me’, ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’, S’Wonderful’, Andy Leggett singing with ‘The River And Me’ and ended the first half with a rousing ‘I Put A Spell On You’. Second half began with ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ and went on with ‘One Note Samba’, ‘Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby’, ‘It’s Almost Like Being In Love’, ‘Strangers On The Shore’, Andy again sang and played ‘Everything But The Blues’ (and confided he and Jane had recorded this during lockdown), ‘Straighten Up and Fly Right’ and finished with ‘Buona Sera’. Standing ovation followed. See you all soon.
5 April – Kevin Grenfell’s Jazz Giants: The band comprised of Kevin Grenfell (leader) on trombone and vocals, Paul Harrison (from Denmark) on reeds, Soren Stausbol (Danish and from Denmark) on piano and vocals, Simon Smith on double bass and “Baby” Jools Aldridge on drums. They opened with ‘Boogaloosa Strut’ and continued with ‘Dinah’, ‘Creole Jazz’, ‘Stranger on the Shore’, ‘Sugar Babe’, ‘Fidgetty Feet’, Sweet Sue’ and then played happy birthday to Lisa Perry in English and in Danish. In the second half we heard ‘Mr Sandman’, ‘Red Roses for a Blue Lady’, Petite Fleur’, ‘Swing 24’, ‘Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby’, ‘The King’, ‘Rondo’ and as always finished up with ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ I am given to understand that we may well see them again later in the year!